Blue Hour Press
Blue Hour is dedicated to bridging the gap between the beauty and tradition of print with the accessibility and possibility of the web, releasing digital chapbooks that are satisfying, respectable, and innovative.
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In collaboration with Justin Runge of Blue Hour Press, this is the online supplement to the Red Issue of Fairy Tale Review, which collects poetry and fiction inspired by and exploring fairy tales. FTR is edited by Kate Bernheimer and Alissa Nutting.
A chapbook by Howie Good with artwork by Mia Christopher.
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We are ecstatic to announce our fifteenth Blue Hour Press chapbook, Fritz Ward’s Doppelgänged:
Fritz Ward’s Doppelgänged is an electrified daguerreotype of authorial impulse, a swerving tour around the haunted amusement park we call narrative. Ward’s proxies write their own misadventures, setting up their shadowy sideshows near agricultural accidents, morgues, and drive-ins. The poems in this dazzling, maximalist collection swing gracefully through the reader’s reflection, and each risky inversion of verbal acrobatics allows both the speaker and the audience to share in the pleasurable vertigo that comes from working without a net. Doppelgänged’s fun house of mirrored forgeries reveals a portrait, in multiple exposures, of the poet himself and much more.
You can read the book on Issuu, and purchase it on Lulu for $10.
Of course, the other big news is that our submissions are now open for the month of August. Guidelines can be downloaded as a Google document or found on our website.
It’s been a long (long long) time coming, but Blue Hour Press has untangled its mess of cords. We’re back, fully operational, and ready to launch some excellent chaps over the coming months.
The first will be Fritz Ward’s Doppelgänged. To whet your appetite, find poems from the series at Coconut, No Tell Motel, and Scythe.
Fritz’s book will be available, as always, for free on Issuu, and will also be available for purchase from Lulu for $10, if you like holding these things in your hands.
Thanks to the BHP faithful for keeping their fingers on our pulse, even if it appeared to flatline for a dreadfully extended period. We’re back, rest assured, and have lots of excellent work to share.
As we try to rehabilitate Blue Hour Press, we’ve come back to the comfort of Blogger. Our Facebook and Twitter pages are the best places to stay informed, so use those for timely updates. Our books…
If you’re reading this, you’ve come through some new aspect of Blue Hour Press. Perhaps it was our new Facebook page, replacing the old Group page, which will still remain active, but see less and less love. Hopefully, you have migrated from membership to like-ship with ease—thanks for doing so, if you have. For those that haven’t, the Facebook link at the bottom should send you there.
Perhaps you came to this blog (which is now on Tumblr and not Blogger, if you hadn’t noticed) through our redesigned website. If you did, splendid! We hope you like the cleaner, simple, and less Web 2.0 look. There’s more beneath the hood, now, with Facebook integration allowing you to like the press and its books and share them on your wall, Goodreads links for every book to add them to your shelf, and Tweet buttons to let you share chaps on Twitter. If you use that service, you should be following us.
If you’re keen and thorough enough, you would have also noticed that two of our books—Nick Courtright’s Elegy for the Builder’s Wife and Emily Kendal Frey’s Airport—are available for purchase through Lulu. Blue Hour Press is going to test run this, and see if there’s interest. Though the mission of the press remains to offer all of our beautiful books free of charge online, we thought some of you might prefer the handheld experience more, and we want to give you that opportunity. Each chapbook is $10.
Speaking of chapbooks, we have two new releases to celebrate all of these big changes, and they’re definitely worth trumpeting: Splice, an eerie cineastic collection by Letitia Trent, and I Am a Natural Wonder, a collaboration between Anne Cecelia Holmes and Lily Ladewig. Read the chapbooks—they’re two of our finest and favorites.
Blue Hour Press readers can expect two chapbooks a month from now until our reading period opens May 1st, which is a change that will become permanent for our release schedule. To make sure you know when more chapbooks are waiting for your reading eyes, follow this blog in your preferred RSS reader until our book-specific read is ready in the coming month, which we will announce here.
Again, we hope you enjoy the new site, the new Facebook page, and the new chapbooks. If you can believe it, another announcement is to follow in the near future that involve a brand-new internet-based literary project that we’re very excited about. Keep clicking, and give feedback if you’re so inspired in any of our various web presences.
Updates
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Our breakfast—2011's best covers, care of @casualoptimist: http://t.co/EE2UaY0F6 weeks ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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P.S. The essayist, Peter Mendelsund, is a prolific cover genius, too. http://t.co/BHFyFD9Z2 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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New books to come! Meanwhile, we're reading this ultra-insightful investigation of the how and why of book jackets. http://t.co/q8jEctKw2 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Today's the day! Send your chapbook manuscripts to us before midnight and we'll take a look. Just go to http://t.co/3mR9mOs for guidelines.4 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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We're halfway through our August reading period, and pleased with what's come to us. C'mon! Send along your work! http://t.co/dYXVK765 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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We're thankful today for this Flickr gallery from @SllabStudios of Paul Rand book covers. Via @coudal: http://t.co/pGFAOoA5 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Put on your poetry reading pants. Fritz Ward's Dopplegänged is here: http://t.co/HHaj0Ne5 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Submissions are now open for August! Head to www.bluehourpress.com for details.
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These Oliver Sacks covers perfectly balance antiquarian and modern sensibilities. http://t.co/gs0s3Yc5 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@thedrellum Andrew! Thanks! We'll be in touch soon about unleashing your poetry beast into the wild.6 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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How are we just discovering this? http://t.co/aqhVOYM6 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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We love these book covers by Charlotte Trounce. Hey Charlotte! Want to tackle a chapbook? http://t.co/O1UDakZ via @thefoxisblack6 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Waiting for book proofs to arrive, we're langouring in Lustig. http://t.co/H0Okgt36 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Reminder: submissions will be open in August, and start on the 1st. That's a week from today! Head to http://t.co/dYXVK76 for guidelines.6 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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We think these are über-gorgeous: http://t.co/2tOKdHd6 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Check out our new website, which will be bustling with activity soon: http://t.co/dYXVK766 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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I feel... my strength... returning...6 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Still working through some web kinks. We'll get 'em whipped, don't you worry. In the meantime, http://www.issuu.com/bluehourpress11 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Big time changes, two new chaps... BHP in print? Please head to http://bluehourpress.com for the scoop, links to out new blog, and books.12 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Oh boy, are we coming back. Be on the lookout next week.12 months ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
Submit your own work
- Chapbooks should be sent to submit@bluehourpress.com as either a .doc or .pdf attachment (the latter preferred). In the subject of the email, please put, in all caps, your last name, your first name, and the title of the project (i.e. ASHBERY JOHN SOME TREES). If you choose to do so, include a short cover letter as the body of your email; this should include a small bio and restrained publication history—please, no "explanations" of the work or statements of purpose.
- Attachments should have a cover page, then an acknowledgements page (if the poems have appeared elsewhere), then the content.
- Chapbook should be somewhere between 10-40 pages in length. If your project falls on the outside of these limits, email us first before submitting.
- If your chapbook is under consideration by another press, please make this explicit in your submission and notify us if it is accepted elsewhere.
- Our reading period will remain open until September 1st. Unsolicited work after this time will not be considered.